Apple Moves to Add Samsung Galaxy S4 to Patent Case

By Jeff Gamet

May 14th, 2013 10:41 AM EDT

Apple informed U.S. Federal Court Judge Lucy Koh late on Monday that it wants to add the Galaxy S4 smartphone to its patent infringement case against Samsung. With a 22 product limit imposed on each company by the Judge, however, that means Apple will have to drop one of the devices it has already targeted in its complaint.

Apple said in its filing that it "has concluded that it is an infringing device and accordingly intends to move for leave to add the Galaxy S4 as an infringing product," according to FOSS Patents.

Apple and Samsung are set to square off in court on spring 2014 over allegations that they are using each other's mobile device patents without proper licensing. Apple won a similar case in August 2012 when a Jury ruled Samsung infringed on a long list of the company's patents and awarded Apple over US$1 billion in damages. Judge Koh later thew out part of that damages ruling and set a court date for this fall to redetermine what the monetary award should be since the Jury improperly calculated the amount.

This new trial mirrors last year's, but targets new products like the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S3 smartphones, and it Apple gets its way, the Galaxy S4.

Apple and Samsung are also fighting over what constitues a unique product for the 22 device limit. Samsung said that the software it installs for different carriers is unique enough that the same device counts as unique products, while Apple is arguing that a specific smartphone model counts as a single device regardless of what software is installed.

When asked Samsung to identify the differences that make a smartphone model a different product based on software, the company refused, according to Apple's filing.